Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. 9 I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

The Lord here is giving instructions to Joshua, not the entire assembly of Israel. However, Joshua is being given a source to know and meditate on so as to understand the Lord’s wisdom and direction for the people that he is to now lead. He would need courage to trust the Lord as he sought wisdom from his God.

This means that, like the future kings to follow him, Joshua would have likely had a copy of the Torah of that day.

Deuteronomy 17:18 When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of the levitical priests. 19 It shall remain with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 neither exalting himself above other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.

The copy of the law the king received would have come from the Holy Scriptures that the priests cared for; most of the people would have had no access to the written Scriptures. And yet, we are told in Psalm 1:1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; 2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.

The righteous are taught to delight and meditate regularly on the Law of the Lord. This meant that they had to rely on the teaching of the priests, prophets, and other, wise sages for their exposure to the written Holy Scriptures only available to a certain few. Those certain few, could meditate on that which they read and studied.

WE today are the “certain few”. We are blessed to have a complete, written account of God’s actions, ways, and teachings. We can meditate not only on what we hear and are taught, but can also read the Holy Scriptures for ourselves. We need care to realize the varied genres, literature, and complexities of interpreting Holy Scripture, but we are still able to swim in it’s truths and expose ourselves to truth that can later be expounded for us.

The Old and New Testament ideas of God’s covenant people being “priests of the church to the world” (the “priesthood of the believer”) has never meant that any baptized person with the Scriptures in their hands will understand and interpret truth equally. However, it does mean that we all have responsibility for what we know and how God has gifted us to serve the church and the world. We can each come before God through Christ for a relationship with him, and He has gifted each one of us to be light and salt in the world.

Are we taking advantage of all of the “gifts” that he has given us? How can we better come to know and serve him in our everyday lives?

In the next few articles, we are going to focus on some of the specific, practical steps and actions we can take in becoming more disciplined and strong followers of Jesus. He longs to walk with us every moment of the day, but, like Adam and Eve in the garden, we must come out of the shadows of guilt, shame, and fear and engage Him.

Blessings to you all!

Fr. Tom

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